Investigators: hunter started Rim Fire

9:50 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5. An unnamed hunter started the Rim Fire when he or she allowed an illegal fire to escape on Aug. 17. "No marijuana cultivation sites were located near the origin of the fire," the fire information team said.

"No arrests have been made at this time and the hunter's name is being withheld pending further investigation," a U.S. Forest Service press release said this morning at 9:21 a.m.

On Wednesday, Stanislaus National Forest spokesman Jerry Snyder discounted an earlier claim one Tuolumne County firefighter made about marijuana farmers sparking the blaze.

While air quality around the town of Mariposa has been good over the last few days, a high-pressure ridge this weekend is likely to keep more smoke in the area--especially in the early morning hours.

At more than 237,000 acres, the Rim Fire is in record territory. The largest wildfire in recent California history was the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County. It burned 273,000 acres. An 1889 blaze in Orange and San Diego counties may have burned close to 300,000 acres, however.

It says the fire was started by a hunter. No name. No sex. No arrests. Still pending investigation. But he or she DID start the fire. Did the unnamed individual turn themself in? Surely all evidence was lost in such a blaze. How can such ambiguous information be distributed as fact? Is there any other concrete information available? At all?

When we left town on vacation, this Forest Service fire had grown to 440 acres. I know fire behavior... I know fire services... Question, why did they not attack with everything then, especially knowing these conditions? USFS failure.

I really hope now that the FS and NPS will look at the policy's for thinning the forest on logging issues.
This was a big lost not only to our forest lands but to the economy of the surrounding areas.
We have had many tress loss to the drought and big kills in the past few years and we all can see exactly what has happened.
Devastation!

I want to know how they plan to push the blaze to the east when the winds will be pushing to the south? I want to know why there are so many CATs still sitting on the back of low beds and water trucks that have been parked and never used? What exactly is going on here... Our history has been ruined and our beautiful scenery is gone! Not to mention all the homes that have been lost.

Now that San Fran may lose their power I suspect the national people will begin lending support which only took 125,000 acres!! Some math figures 1 acre = 43,560 square feet now times by 125,000 and the burned square feet equals 5,445,000,000 that's 5 billion feet of land that was there decades before your prefab homes. That's millions and millions of square feet in a "Protected" National Forest that are gone. Remember kids trees keep this planet cool. So I will pray the firemen let the homes go first instead of their own lives.

Dear Troy,
Thank you for that fabulous picture. We say that cloud yesterday, and we had no idea what caused it. Keep up the good work. We will pray that they can get this fire out, as soon as possible. Love, Betty & Al